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These tools are not the right tools for the job. But we can figure what we actually need to have to do the things. Because we do have the tools. *And* very big brains. Image by Steve Buissinne via Pixabay.

“We have the tools, we have the talent!” — Winston Zeddemore, in Ghostbusters

A post about tools.

🧫🔬💊 Better living through chemistry. It’s a thing an uncle used to say, joking around about lots of things. It was the Dow Chemical slogan back in the day.

For me, it’s current about being alive. Some of us have dramatic health issues. I have ones that from time to time require big chemistry to keep me topside on this planet. Considering that I was a bit of a hippie purist trying to navigate complex health stuff on all natural approaches back in the day, I’ve come a long way. 💊

Sometimes you need the chemistry. You need the shock.

You need the tools. You need the toolbox. 🧰

Big chemistry is once again keeping me going through a health crisis. I’m okay. This one was not as close of a call as some of them are.

But I say this because it’s a tool. 🧰

If I wasn’t willing to use it, and if it wasn’t available, I might have stopped being upright here on this complicated giant spinning ball held together by gravity a long time ago. 🌎

And I’m really saying all of that because we need to be *willing* to use the tools that are all around us for the complicated things that are unfolding.

We’re not always great at that. YET.

Sometimes we are.

But sometimes the denial is strong. We think this isn’t the time. We’re nervous.

We don’t want to be the one to pick up the hammer and the nail or the screwdriver or the sledgehammer for whatever it is that we need to actually *do*.

We don’t want to be the one to try and figure out what’s wrong. To get the right screwdriver head. To assess the scene. To figure out what else we might need.

Sometimes we don’t want to lead. We don’t want to be the decider. We don’t want to stretch our brains into uncomfortable spaces. 🧠

But also maybe we’re hoping someone else will come along and have the right tools and the right ideas and fix it. Whatever it is.

Except we’re in this moment in time when the way society has worked is getting drastically and dramatically changed every single day.

Nobody’s going to come along and fix all the things because all the things are changing all the time and new problems are showing up and we need new problem solving and some people are still very much in the deliberately breaking it part of this whole thing.

We’re going to need to get better ourselves at assessing what tools we actually need, at being willing to use them, and at working with other people in doing it. And at seeing that something needs tools applied in the first place.

I’m working on that myself. I’m trying to get better at working with teams at figuring out what tools we need to help us navigate this moment. These moments. This era.

It’s a work in progress. One of the ways I’m working with other people to find ways forward is for the nonprofit work (here at Fierce Community) that I’ve been trying to do for years to do civic or community engagement here in this time of big change and disruption and transformation. We’re doing teamwork tonight behind the scenes to help us figure out what we can realistically bring to the table in this fast changing era. It’s a work in progress, and we’ll post more here on this platform when we get a bit further along with the remodel and refocus.

I’m working with a different team that’s a small business that’s having its own set of changes right now. Many of which involve assessing the tools that are in use and updating and evolving them. It’s hard work and requires much thoughtful analysis. It also requires decision making by different people in different roles.

And that’s the thing.

For everything that’s unfolding around us, there’s going to be lots of decisions that need to be made by lots of people in lots of different roles.

🗨️🗯️🧰 Talking about tools and how to use them is one way to think about the things we’re going to need to be doing as big change unfolds.

Being willing to use tools but also to think about how to approach problems that we are facing is going to be really quite important.

For lots of folks, it already has been.

But big change is coming to all of the places.

As I say all the time, you can’t change this many things about the way the world and society works and not get huge cascading effects and system impacts and disruptions all over the place.

So one of the things you can do right now is assess the tools you have. 🧰🧠 Think about if you need some more maybe. Figure out how to go about getting them.

It’s also tools we have shared access to. Neighbors and friends. Groups that we’re a part of. Things like legal capabilities or other types of leverage or capacity.

For me this week the tool I have needed is a medicine. But it’s also access to doctors and a pharmacy and all of that is important. It’s also accumulated knowledge in the medical fields but my own accumulated medical history and perspective as well. Bringing that all together to be as effective as possible is the challenge.

Assessing the tools and capabilities around you is a good way to go to get started.

Doesn’t have to be formal.

👀🧿🔭 It can just be taking a look around with a critical eye and seeing what you might need and what you might need to get and what you might need to think about.

It’s also having conversations with folks about the stuff. Making it awkward. Or not. Getting into stuff people don’t like to talk about.

But talking about big change that’s coming will help us be more ready for it as it unfolds. Less shocked. More willing to get out the toolbox sooner. 🧰

People navigate chaos better if they are willing to look at it honestly.

Better living through chemistry.

Better living through the tools and knowledge we have access to in modern society.

Better willingness to use all that when we need to.

Better living through critical thinking and active decision making and involved problem solving.

It’s okay to get into it. It’s okay to mix it up.

It’s okay to start shifting things around in your own life or in your business or in your work or in your groups that you’re in or in schools or wherever.

Those of us who are willing to dig in are going to really be able to better help other people as changes ramp up.

But it’s also that those of us who are willing to use tools and not be afraid of them will be better prepared with better resources than those who are actively in denial or refusing to use the things around them to deal with the changes.

And that will happen.

It’s like people who won’t evacuate when there’s a disaster even though the first responders asked them to get the heck out of the danger zone.

We have knowledge and resources and skills and capabilities. And tools. We’re going to need to use that stuff.

Okay I’ve repeated the point several times which is actually what you’re supposed to be doing to get a message across so I think we’ve covered it. Even though I kind of did it by accident but here we are. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Anyway I’m off to go take those good meds and stay functional for this week. Good luck to you and yours in doing the things you need to do to stay functional this week.

We are going to find ways through because humans are resilient as heck and those of us who are willing and capable of leveraging that to go forward are going to be able to help others. And then we’ll have to take turns because not everyone’s going to have the capacity all the time.

Anyway. Forward we go!

Be safe. Try not to get ded. Love some people. Make the world around you just a little bit better of a place to exist in right where you are. That kind of stuff is going to help us all.

Okay I’ll stop talking. Take care and have a good one!

-Vanessa Burnett

🧰🪛💊⚙️⚒️

A Post About Tools

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